LOVELAND -- Before teacher-turned-farmer Tom Hewson ever plants his new crop near homes and a school in west Loveland this June, he wants everyone to know that the familiar-shaped herb growing there isn't what it seems.

That's why, on April 1, he posted three signs around the field at the northwest corner of First Street and Wilson Avenue that say: "Coming Next Summer: Industrial Hemp Field."

And in bright orange letters, the critical message: "You cannot get high from these plants!"

Hewson and Russ Rogers, his business partner in the hemp-for-oil venture named Sentinel Mountain, also have scheduled a neighborhood meeting to allay any concerns of residents. That meeting will take place 6-7:30 p.m. April 19 at Namaqua Elementary School, 209 N. Namaqua Ave., just north of the field in question.

At this point, it's all about education, Hewson said.

He's confident that when people hear him explain the difference between marijuana (which this isn't) and industrial hemp, they'll go home in a better state of mind.

"When they see there's criteria that we have to follow, that it's a registered crop within the state, it puts people at ease," he said.

The problem, of course, is that the plants he will grow, especially when they get 6 feet tall, look just like marijuana. But he's growing the hemp not for the mind-altering THC molecule but for the health-supporting CBD molecule, Hewson said.

"This is not to get high; it's to get well"

In fact, hemp plants that are high in CBD are low in THC, and vice-versa, he said.

"The genetics of this plant won't let it produce more than 0.3 percent THC," he said, and the state and his own company will test the plants in the field to make sure. Anything over that 0.3 percent threshold will be destroyed, he said.

"This is not to get high; it's to get well," he said.

Although Hewson was careful not to make any medical claims about the efficacy of CBD, or cannabidiol, oil, the anecdotal evidence is everywhere, including in Hewson's own life.

"The benefit to me was immediate," he said of CBD's effect on a Baker's cyst behind his knee that had been giving him trouble.

Tom Hewson shows where a hemp plant is snipped off to create a new clone. (Jenny Sparks / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

Hewson was a science teacher at Thompson Valley High School when he took up farming on the side several years ago. He has leased the 55-acre field at First and Wilson from the Fancher family, which owns Loveland Ready-Mix Concrete, for about five years.

He first grew corn there, and since that first year has been growing alfalfa and grass hay. He retired from teaching in 2016 to take up farming full-time.

Two years ago, he tried his hand at industrial hemp in a different Loveland-area field. He didn't have the greatest success, he said, and spent last year developing CBD oil products and figuring out how to improve the farming side of the process.

When he talks about his venture, his love for teaching, science and farming all become obvious.

If asked, he will explain in detail the full spectrum of cannabinoid compounds and the high percentage of CBD in the plants he's growing. He'll talk about the research done at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, how different hemp plants are used for fiber and for oil and the process he will use to grow his crop in the Loveland field.

Getting ready to plant

In an industrial building in Loveland, Hewson and Rogers already have thousands of hemp plants reaching up toward grow lights. They started with just 10 plants and have cloned the rest by clipping off the tops of "mother plants" and rooting them in root-growth hormone and a planting medium, then transplanting to successively larger pots.

On Wednesday, Tom Hewson shows Loveland mayor Jacki Marsh the field where he plans to grow industrial hemp at the northwest corner of First Street and Wilson Avenue in Loveland. (Jenny Sparks / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

On May 14, a crew will come in and clone 10,000 to 12,000 new plants, he said, and three weeks later Sentinel Mountain will make its first planting in the field.

Three weeks after that, they will plant a second batch and then do a third and final planting three weeks later. The hemp will be grown in a 12-acre section of the field away from the road that's irrigated by a center-pivot sprinkler, Hewson said. The rest of the field will continue to produce hay.

The plants will be cut down by hand the second week of October, weather permitting, and hung up to dry.

Then his crew will strip each branch by hand to collect the hemp flowers, which contain the CBD oil. He said he will sell most of the flowers to producers of CBD products and have a local company extract some oil for him to use in his own products, which he sells at sentinelmountain.com.

In the final four weeks before harvest, the plants will emit a marijuana-like odor that will be "desirable to some people and not desirable to other people."

Anticipating intruders

To protect the crop from the deer and elk that live in west Loveland, Hewson and Rogers are planning to put up fencing around the field.

The partners also are concerned about intruders of another kind. At the very end of his harvest two years ago, someone entered his hemp field in the middle of the night and cut down about 75 plants, he said.

If the thieves were looking for a free high, they were disappointed, he said.

"At the end of the day, a human being can hold their breath and get more of a high than from this plant material," he said.

But to make the crop more secure, Sentinel Mountain will install video-surveillance cameras and vigorously prosecute any trespassers, Hewson said.

The eastern portion of the field is slated for gravel mining, but not before 2019, according to Stephanie Fancher, manager of permitting for Loveland Ready-Mix. The mineral extraction will move to the west, but a portion of the field will always remain to be farmed, she said.

"I was concerned. We got a few emails from neighbors that it was close to a school and kids," she said. "I wanted to see for myself."

She came away from the tour satisfied, she said.

"I don't have a problem with hemp," Marsh said. "It's a valuable crop grown by a local farmer.

"People have to get past the idea that anything that looks like marijuana gets you high," she said.

Hewson said as CBD products become more widely used, the competition among producers also is growing. When he started experimenting in his basement three years ago, only five states allowed the cultivation of industrial hemp. Now 14 do, he said, and hemp farming is becoming a serious business.

"Cheech and Chong have left the building, and the three-piece suits have taken over," he said.